A Matter of Survival
by Jo the Phoenix
Summary: X2: Colossus and the others escape through the tunnels, but where do they go from there?
1. Chapter 1

DISCLAIMER: not my characters, for the most part.

Author's Notes:

-It always bugged me that in X2 there was no mention of what happened to Colossus and the others when they escaped the school. They are shown at the end of the film, but there was no indication of where they went as they fled Stryker's soldiers.

-Those familiar with comic backstory will realize that I've taken liberties with many characters, including Emma Frost and members of Alpha Flight.

-This fic will contain slash in later chapters. Ye be warned.

Jones was able to walk again, which was a relief to Peter. Not that he minded carrying the kid as well as the heavy, canvas pack - the weight didn't bother the mutant called Colossus - but it was difficult to manoeuvre through the thick forest with a child in his arms. Once Jones found his own place in the line of students fleeing the school, Peter Rasputin adjusted the backpack. He was thankful that someone had the presence of mind to grab a few of the packs as they fled the school through one of the tunnels. Everett was carrying one of the other packs and Peter was sure that Ev was synchronizing with Peter's own mutant ability in order to carry the heavy kit with such endurance and strength. The packs were full of sweatshirts and pants, bottles of water, some kind of emergency food, a first aid kit as well as other items that Peter had not had time yet to investigate. Their first priority was putting as much space and forest between them and the soldiers who seemed intent on capturing them. The last pack was being carried in turns by Emma and Alison, and another thing that Peter was thankful for was that the young women had not once complained about its weight. Even after distributing some of the clothes to cover up pyjamas or boxer shorts, there were still many in the packs. Peter had considered simply emptying them of the extra clothes until Jones reminded him that there might be other groups of mutant kids out somewhere in the forest, fleeing the soldiers that had invaded their home and school.

A sudden flurry of movement to the left of the small group frightened everyone. Lights flared at Alison's fingertips and Shannon stood close to her, ready to amplify her power. Peter shifted to his steel form and Paige changed her skin to diamond. A small mule deer leapt out of the trees and ran away. A collective sigh of relief sounded. Peter relaxed, and turned to take stock of the group that he'd become the de facto leader of. Ali was re-shouldering the backpack; Paige was busy peeling off her diamond skin off, leaving it in a pile on the leaf-strewn ground, with Teresa looking on, disgusted. Shannon, Everett and Jones stood waiting for Peter to continue leading them away from the mansion.

"Just a deer," said Jones, unnecessarily, looking expectantly up at Peter, who shrugged and resumed forcing his way through the undergrowth. As he pushed aside saplings he mused on this new-found leadership role. He had never wanted to be a leader. Of the five most senior students, Kitty was the one who pined to be the leader of a team of X-Men. The others, Peter thought, had no such aspirations. John merely wanted to know the combustible temperature of everything; Bobby's goal was to be the Guinness record holder for eating the most Twinkies in a single sitting; and Emma - well, no-one really knew what Emma wanted in life. Peter's own ambitions were just as unclear to himself.

As they walked, he thought about Emma. The young telepath had come to the Institute around the same time that Peter had, seven years ago. She had been disabled by migraines that both Professor Xavier and Doctor Grey had understood completely, and it hadn't taken too long for the migraines to be under control. This girl, though, was not quite as altruistic as the other two telepaths. Yes, she had listened to Professor Xavier's discussions on the use of mutant powers for the good of all mankind, but would turn around and pry into people's most private thoughts without a second consideration. She had few scruples about retaliatory gathering and revealing of private thoughts. Peter was very careful to never make Emma angry; to never give her a perceived reason to pry into his head. Kitty Pryde had once crossed Emma somehow, and very soon after, the entire school know about her secret crush on Peter, who had been told directly about it by Emma herself. His friendship with the gentle 'Katja' had never been the same- Kitty had avoided him (and most everyone) for months after that. Emma was blonde, blue-eyed, and beautiful, and she reminded Peter of a datura flower: gorgeous but dangerous.

Emma's shadow, Alison Blaire, wore mostly black. While Emma's wardrobe consisted of white shirts of various styles, and the lightest-coloured, tightest blue jeans she could find, Ali was a shadow: charcoal, black, and on days when she was feeling particularly colourful, she donned dark olive grey. Her hair was dyed black, and heaven forbid her blonde roots begin to show! Several piercings - Peter did not want to imagine where they all might be. She was never seen without her iPod (black, of course), and it was rumoured snidely behind Ali's back that she slept with it. Proof was here this night: scared from her bed and into the forest, it was clipped to the waistband of the sweats she'd borrowed from one of the backpacks. Her powers were in direct proportion to the sound frequencies and volume she heard; the louder the noise, the brighter the lights that flashed from her fingertips. Peter knew that when she worked with Siryn in the Danger Room, she could blast apart buildings.

"How far do you think we've come?" Ali asked, interrupting Peter's musings.

"About four miles. Give or take," Paige answered her.

"What is it?" Suddenly Ali's voice was alert, and Peter followed her gaze to Emma Frost. The 18 year old bombshell was standing still, her face screwed up in concentration. Peter was suddenly aware of the thrumming sound of approaching helicopters. He shifted to steel automatically, and moved in front of the smaller students, shielding them. Boost moved next to Emma, who was frowning as she focused on the helicopters, and put a hand on her arm. Usually Emma hated to be touched ("You're in my space!" was a constant refrain, usually delivered with a flick of her white-blonde hair), but Shannon could only help amplify powers when she was in contact with the person. Everett moved closer, too, and concentrated on the now-visible helicopters.

"We're deer," Emma muttered. "We're just a bunch of deer out for a midnight snack, that's all. Just deer."

Almost immediately, the choppers banked and sped the other way, and Emma sank to the ground, panting. "God, that was hard," she whispered. "There were eight guys in each of those helicopters." She sighed and rubbed her temples with her thumbs. "No-one has any pain-killers, do they?" she asked weakly, with a small laugh.

Ali immediately dropped the backpack and began rooting through it. There was a small travel-sized bottle of Tylenol in the first aid kit, and she handed this to Emma along with a water bottle.

The group sat where they were, waiting for Emma's medication to kick in. "Shouldn't be too long - I took four. Or five," she said, trying to focus on the small vial. "How many were in here to start with?"

"Six."

"Oh. Then I took six." She sipped again from the water bottle.

Peter doled out more water to everyone, then peered in the slowly-growing light at the food. There were vacuum-packs of jerky, something labelled "Mainstay Emergency food rations", and something called Larabar which looked like a granola bar. These he opened and gave out. People munched slowly while Peter looked though the packs more carefully.

In the small pocket of each one was a compass and a small package of light sticks. In the main part of the backpack, besides the clothing, first aid kit, water and food, was a water-tight plastic container. He opened one and found two packages of matches, and nestled in yellow foam, a communicator, it's silver 'X' logo gleaming in the gloom of the forest night, and an ordinary cell phone. Under the cell phone was a piece of paper, which Peter assumed was directions for use. He lifted the communicator out of the foam and snapped it open. Lifting it to his ear, ignoring the hopeful looks of the students, he heard white noise. He spoke into it, wondering who might have one and be able to answer… Dr. Grey, maybe? Mr. Summers? Mr. Logan? No one answered him. "Is there anyone there?" he tried again, unsuccessfully. He sighed and put in back in the box.

"Where is everyone?" Shannon whispered.

"I don't know," Peter said. "Well, Mr. Logan was still there at the school when I left."

"All of the other adults were away. I don't know where."

"Ms. Munroe was going to Boston, I heard."

"Where is Professor Xavier?"

"They took some of us," Jones' small voice cut through the clamour. "They were going to take me, too."

"They got Artie."

"And Kevin."

"And Jubilee."

A short silence fell upon the group. "Where is everyone, though? They can't have caught all of us."

"There's another group out here somewhere. There's three tunnels out. There has to be another group out here."

Emma spoke up. "There _is _another group out here. They're coming towards us from the east right now."

Peter looked at Emma. "Who?"

"Kitty, Skin, quite a few little ones," Emma said, "I don't know all their names."

Paige glared at Emma. "You've lived here _how many years_ and you don't know everyone's names?" she asked incredulously.

"They don't matter to me, so why should I learn their names?" Emma asked. Paige looked shocked, and opened her mouth to retort hotly, but was interrupted.

"It's not important right now; stop quarrelling." Peter held up his hands. He spoke to Emma. "Your headache is better? Can you tell if the soldiers are still at the school. Can we go back?"

"My _migraine_," Emma clarified, "is much better, thank-you. And no, I can't tell if the soldiers are still there." Shannon moved forward again, to amplify Emma's telepathy. "No, you stay the hell away from me. Do you _want _me to have an aneurism?" she spat.

Peter decided to ignore everyone and focussed again on the cell phone. He pulled it out of its foam cushion and saw the slip of paper under it again. Curious, he fumbled that out of the box, too.

"Oh, thank God!" Kitty's voice called out in the darkness. "There you are!" A small group made their way through the underbrush to the spot where Peter and his cluster of students were. A soft exclamation of delight from many in both groups at finding each other echoed off of the surrounding trees as they greeted each other. Peter awkwardly accepted a hug from Kitty, and received a speculative glance from Emma. Some of the younger students were dancing and cheering, until Kitty hushed them. Paige began to dole out warmer clothing from the backpacks to the new group, and Everett pulled out one of the first aid kits to patch up various cuts and scrapes.

"Do you think that invasion was connected to the assassination attempt on the President?" Kitty asked, suddenly all business. Peter blinked, but Emma looked intrigued.

"That's a possibility," she admitted. Kitty ignored her, keeping her gaze on Peter.

"I don't know. I don't want to consider anything until we get everyone to safety." He looked down at the cell phone and slip of paper still in his hands. Peter asked Ali to provide a little light to read by. When she obliged, he fumbled the paper open and was puzzled.

""When you're in trouble, call." That all this says. Call who?"

Emma took the paper, and softly read it aloud. The kid closest to her answered in a whisper. "One four one six…" He rattled off numbers quickly. Peter, startled, stared at him.

"What did you just say?"

"I don't know!" The kid looked worried.

Emma beamed. "Brilliant! Xavier must have planted…" She trailed off, then called out, "When you're in trouble, call…"

A resounding telephone number was said by everyone in the clearing. Emma repeated the question, and Peter dialled the cell as the answer was given, amazed that he was saying the number along with everyone else. It rang five times, a funny double ring each time, and was picked up with a click.

"Hello?" A woman's voice asked suspiciously.

"Um, hello." Peter didn't know how to continue, and looked around blankly at the students around him. Ali stared back, urging him to say something. "We're in trouble." It was all he could think to say. "We - Xavier told us…" Would this person know Professor Xavier?

"Yes. Did he tell you to call? What is your location? Do you have GPS?"

"Uh, yeah… Jones, where are we?"

Jones told him some numbers, and Peter relayed them into the phone, then asked, "Who are you?"

"I'm Heather, one of Xavier's former students." Peter could hear a smile in her voice. He felt better. "We'll come and get you. Can you stay where you are? Are you in direct danger there?" Her voice was motherly.

"I think we're okay here." He scanned the night sky for helicopters automatically. "We're okay."

"How many of you are there?"

"I'm not sure… about 40?" He turned it into a question.

"Fine. I've sent some of our people out, and we'll arrive shortly in a jet to bring you here."

"Where's 'here'?" Colossus asked.

"Toronto."

"Okay."

"We'll be there soon."

"Alright." Peter flipped the phone closed, and no sooner had he done that than Emma dropped into a defensive crouch, and peered into the black sky. Peter shifted to steel again, fearing the soldiers, hoping against hope that Heather, whoever she was, would arrive soon, and bring an army with her.

But it wasn't military helicopters or soldiers. What dropped out of the sky were the most beautiful human beings Peter had ever seen.


	2. Chapter 2

A Matter of Survival

Chapter 2

Peter watched the two newcomers. They were obviously mutants, recognizable by their looks as well as the fact that they had dropped out of the clouds, swiftly landing among the students. A young man and woman, wearing identical black and white uniforms of some sort, both with the same pale skin, pointed ears, and black hair. Twins. Peter remembered from biology class that identical twins were always either both boys or both girls, never one of each. Peter thought that the writer of the bio text book had never met these two. They even moved the same, sweeping proud gazes around the group of students.

"Are any of you hurt?" They spoke their accented words simultaneously.

"No," Kitty answered, moving forward. In speaking first, she took the leadership role, a burden that Peter was glad to relinquish to her.

Behind Kitty, Peter straightened up from an action-ready stance, but he did not shift from his steel form. He didn't think he would until he met this Heather that he had talked to on the phone. He wouldn't feel safe until either the group was far from here or Professor Xavier was back with them. Peter scanned the groups of younger mutants, automatically checking that they were well, and felt attention upon himself. He glanced over at the two newcomers, ten feet away, and was discomfited to see that they were both staring at him. Although the weight of their identical examination made him slightly uncomfortable for some reason, he proudly felt that maybe he would never shift back from steel. Peter stood still, transferring eye-contact from one to the other and back, until they embarrassedly stopped staring. Kitty was rushing over to talk with them; perhaps she had noticed their gazing, or perhaps not. Would she be jealous? There was nothing for her to be jealous about. No- she was perfectly friendly and professional with the twins. Peter looked over at Emma, who he thought was smirking and whispering something to Ali. He couldn't tell in the gloomy moonlight.

Peter heard the twins, once having introduced themselves as Jeanne-Marie and Jean-Paul, tell Kitty that they had been sent by someone they called Guardian. Peter assumed that Guardian was Heather. They were there to ensure everyone was alright and to scout the area to find a place for Guardian to land the jet.

"There are soldiers at the Institute. They have helicopters equipped with radar. heat-seeking sensors and some very, very heavy artillery. The only clear place to land a jet is at the Institute. You can't fly a jet there without them noticing it and blowing it out of the sky," Emma stated firmly. The twins looked sceptical.

But Jones, surprisingly, backed her up, nodding. "And there's really no place to land a jet around here, unless it's at the lake." The lake was on the opposite side of the school from where they were now. There was nothing but trees for miles and miles.

"Fine," the young woman, Jeanne-Marie, said, somewhat irritably. "Heather will hover over us, and we can carry you up. Alright?"

Her brother shook his head slightly at her, muttering something indistinct. Both twins looked over at Peter again. He guessed correctly they were judging his size and weight, and expected them to scrap that plan and begin brainstorming a different idea. But Jeanne-Marie surprised him.

"We've carried Walter before, and Walter is bigger than him," indicating Peter.

Jean-Paul made a small disbelieving noise, but shrugged and acquiesced. Jeanne-Marie flipped open a cell phone, dialled and spoke into it in French. Jean-Paul walked around, stretching his arms and shoulders. Peter thought he looked like an Olympic athlete. One of the younger students gently tugged on Peter's hand, and Peter had trouble tearing his gaze away to focus on the child. When he finally acknowledged the bid for his attention, he saw that it was ten-year-old Julia.

"I'm scared," she whispered, her voice as squeaky as usual. "Where's Professor Xavier?" Julia's large eyes looked even bigger filled with tears in the moonlight.

"I don't know. We're going to go with these two, and we'll be safe until everything is settled and Professor Xavier gets back." Peter glanced around again. Jean-Paul was watching him.

"Can I stay here with you? Georgina is teasing me. Please don't make me go and sit with the other kids, okay?" Julia pleaded, and Peter distractedly agreed. He gazed around the group, finding Kitty, who dimpled at him.

"They're almost here," Jeanne-Marie called out, flipping the cell phone closed. "Everyone line up. Jean-Paul, how do we want to do this? Little ones first?"

"Sure."

Jeanne-Marie prodded the younger mutants into a ragged line, glancing at the sky now and then. Jean-Paul stood aloof. Kitty gathered the backpacks, sorting through quickly for necessary items, pulling communicators and cell phones out of them and handing these to the older students to carry. Everett and Angelo horsed around, both of them stretching and tying knots in each other's skin until Emma snapped at them to stop. Peter watched it all, tired and apprehensive.

When a jet, quite similar to the X-Men's Blackbird, hovered over them suddenly, Peter felt a jump in his chest. He watched the rest of the sky for helicopters as the twins began quickly ferrying the group of students up to the hatch of the jet. After the first ten were safely in the jet, each clutching a backpack, the twins had to begin carrying one between the both of them, rather than on their own. Angelo pulled in his extraneous skin as he lifted off the ground, appearing to concentrate hard to keep a hold of the twins as they hoisted him up like trapeze artists. Peter heard him laugh as he reached the jet's hatch, apparently enjoying the ride. Emma was next, silently giving the twins each one of her hands, gazing up at the fuselage of the jet until she reached it. After that, both of the twins rested for a moment before bringing up Ali, then Shannon, and then Paige. Everett had synchronized with Joseph and both had teleported when Emma gave them an idea of where they could teleport to safely within the jet. Kitty went next to last, smiling at Peter shyly before she lifted off the ground. Peter gave one last look around their camp and at the sky, scanning visually for black helicopters, seeing nothing. When he finished a complete three-hundred-and-sixty degree scan, the twins were back, and Peter shifted back from steel, intercepting a glance between the two. Reluctantly, he gave them his hands. They seemed to be communicating without words, and they simultaneously pulled him off the ground with effort. Jeanne-Marie was rougher as they flew straight up, flying far more aggressively, hauling on Colossus' arm. She hoisted him into the jet, turning in mid-air to pull him in through the hatch as Jean-Paul boosted him.

A woman greeted him as he stood up on the floor of the jet. She was warm-looking, her voluminous auburn hair adding to the impression, shining in the l.e.d.s mounted on the ceiling. She wore a uniform similar to that the twins, but coloured red and orange. She smiled kindly, introducing herself as Heather. Peter smiled back, feeling safe for the first time since he woke earlier this night.


End file.
